Knights of the Round in Sunnydale
by EnderStrife
Summary: Buffy is on patrol and stumbles onto a strange ceremony taking place.Before she knows what is what Xander is laying next to her dead... Who is that man with the spiky blond hair and huge sword. Reviews and Flames are Welcome.


Yay its time for the usual fan fiction speel! The characters in the following characters are not mine so I do not claim any rights to them. But I do claim rights to the story. So don't steal my shi0t. Squaresoft pwns Cloud, Vincent, and all Final Fantasy stuff herein. And somebody pwns Buffy. I don't know whom. J

            The scene opens on a dark grim graveyard, which holds the hundreds of dead and even un-dead of Sunnydale.  The heroic blond _slayer_ of Sunnydale is on patrol tonight with her good friend Xander who is currently bitching about something to Buffy.

            "I mean jeez Buff she is a _ex-demon_ the least she could do to make up for her past sins is to have dinner ready for me when I get home from the site." Xander complains while weaving between tombstones.

            "Oh shut up you big baby you know as well as I do that you get home before Anya and that you are a far better cook.  So why don't you just save yourself the months of inner turmoil and accept that you are her bitch." Buffy chuckles to herself and Xander while she surveys the area for any lurking baddies ready to attack. "It will go much easi… Stop, I hear something." Buffy and Xander both squat down next to a headstone and listen.

            "I am not her bitch…" Xander grumbles while pulling out a double-sided battle-axe and waiting for a order from Buffy.

            "Shhh.." Buffy shushes Xander as she listens and hears definite chanting from up ahead. "Come with me, let's check this out." They both walk forward a few feet while the chanting gets louder but the see no signs of people or demon. On their next step forward they both bump into a soft invisible surface that upon inspection they find out they can step through with some resistance. Upon doing so they are both almost blinded by lights of a thousand colors emanating from some sort of dimensional opening a hundred feet above them. To their immediate front there are 12 beings in robes chanting and weaving intricate loops and swirls with their hands all simultaneously. 

            "Whoooooa, major weird Buff. Whut the hell is going on?" Yells Xander over the loud chanting of the 12 robed beings.

            "I don't know." She replies while drawing a sword from beneath her long leather over-coat. "But I'm pretty sure we should try and stop it."  With that she steps toward the circle in time to see a large bolts of lightning jump from the circle and hit the dimensional tear.  Another robed figure they had not noticed standing in the center starts to yell into the portal. All of a sudden 2 fireballs come rocketing out of the portal and slam into the ground with a loud thud. Buffy and Xander are thrown outwards but stop when then hit the side of a mausoleum with yet another loud thud.

            "Ow, ow, ow, ow." Buffy repeats as she slides to the ground. She looks around to find her sword that she had dropped when she notices that she is sitting in a puddle of blood. "Huh, I'm not bleeding where did this come from…" She follows the trail back to a sight to horrible for her to handle. There on the wall next to where she had hit is Xander skewered through the heart with Buffy's own sword and the axe he was carrying out of the middle of his own forehead.  He is dead and Buffy knows it but she still pulls him down trying to see if there is anything she can do. After a few seconds of helpless struggling with his corpse she closes his eyelids then stands up. She is crying while she moves towards the craters but she doesn't care. "WHUT DID YOU DO THAT HAD TO COST MY FRIEND HIS LIFE!!!" she shrieks. However before she can reach the men the one who had been in the middle looks at her raises his hand with palm faced outwards and she stops in mid-stride frozen.

            "Oh it looks like we have the slayer in our grips gentlemen" the man says as he raises his hand with Buffy floating in the air corresponding with his movements. He clenches his fist and then drops his hand away effectively placing Buffy in mid-air unable to move. "Enough with that though we have far more important things to attend to. Cast the freeze spell on those two before the awake…." Before he could finish though he sees two men standing up inside where the craters had been. "QUICKLY, kill them and get the Gem!"

            Inside the first crater is a tall man dressed in all red with the collar of his coat covering the lower part of his face. His hair is long and black with two stands hanging down over his face.  As he stands Buffy notices that one of his hands is a large golden mechanical claw and in the other is a very powerful looking gun.  His eyes are blood red and glaring at the men around him; he is ready to kill to defend himself from the looks of it.  This is when Buffy notices something the others probably couldn't unless they had her slayer enhanced hearing, he isn't breathing.  The man in the red is a Vampire and from his looks a very dangerous one at that.

            "Hey Cloud is that you?" he yells towards the other crater while pointing his gun at the 6 robed being surrounding him. "Are you alright?"

            The man in the other crater has now stood all the way up and is surveying the situation around him. He is a tall man who couldn't be much older then twenty Buffy thinks to herself. He is dressed in a blue outfit with black boots and a metal thing on his shoulder.  The most notable things about him however are his eyes which are glowing dull green, his hair which looks like a gallon of gel has been used to style it so pointy, and the extremely large sword on his back that is as tall, if not taller, than him. 

            "I'm fine Vincent," he yells to the man in red. "Scan them and see whut we are up against."  At this he draws the large sword from it's sheathe on his back and holds it up in a defensive stance. The man in red, Vincent's, golden hand begins to glow a yellow color as he says the word "Scan-All".

            "All of them are level fifty Vamp. Mages with five thousand health points and are weak against fire and holy magic. Except for the one in the different colored robe who is off the charts and the girl in mid-air over there who is a Slayer at level sixty with eight thousand HP, and is also immune to earth since she has float cast on her, it says she is a friendly." Vincent reports to cloud.

            "Ok then, you go and dispel the girl and I will take on these guys." Orders cloud in a military fashion as he steps towards one of the mages and slashes with his sword cutting the mage in half from his right shoulder down to his left abdomen. Seeing this, all of the mages start to nail cloud with lightning bolts. They don't notice Vincent leap high above them and land next to Buffy.

            "Are you alright?" he asks her as his golden hand glows green and he says the word_ dispel._ Buffy floats to the ground beside Vincent and before he can react she drives a wooden stake into his heart. Vincent stares at her for a split second and only sees one thing…. A need for vengeance. Then he is dust and knows nothing but pain. As Buffy walks away from the pile of dust that used to be Vincent she looks back to spit in disgust on it. Whut she sees she is not ready for, a bird of fire has risen from where he once stood and is raining fire down.  It then sends a mournful call out before it disappears in an explosion of flame, which takes out the 4 closest Vamp. Mages.  When the smoke clears there stands Vincent good as new and from the look on his face Buffy can see he is extremely pissed.

            She can barely get a "Whut the fu…" out before he rushes up to her and knocks her 10 feet into the air.  When she reaches the height of her arc Vincent raises both arms above his head and yells out "Bolt3", from the palm of his left out stretched hand a giant bridge of lightning goes across to his right palm and shoots upwards through Buffy where it meets up with another bolt which is flowing out of a cloud far above. It is above this that he yells to the slayer.

            "THIS PAIN YOU FEEL NOW CAN NEVER COMPARE TO WHUT I EXPERIANCED OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS IN THAT PIT OF HELL YOU BANISHED ME TO. MY VERY SOUL WAS SCARRED AND BURNED AND TORTURED!!!" he shouts in rage. She is still hanging there in the air where he had knocked her suspended in red lightning of anguish and pain. She would scream but she knows if she did it would not be able to convey the amount of pain she is in.  Vincent is only shaken from his current state when he hears a yelp of pain from where he and Cloud had originally landed.

            "CLOUD!" he exclaims as he finishes the spell dropping the charred and mangled body of the slayer.  She is still alive but is hanging on with by a thread. Quickly Vincent sees that Cloud has been the victim to a blindness spell and is swinging his sword in large arcs trying to defend himself from the bolts of lightning that are being hurled at him.  Vincent jumps into the fray with Death Penalty fully loaded and ready to release.  The first shot hits one Vamp. Mage in the head and carries through to take another in the leg hobbled and crying for help.

            "Vincent? Are you there?" calls out Cloud as he swings Ultima Weapon with one hand and rustles through his pocket looking for eye drops to cure his blindness with the other. "I took out four of them before the Boss cast Darkness on me"

            "I'm here Cloud." Says Vincent as he fires off another volley of death, which with amazing luck the three Vamp. Mages and there Boss dodge. He quickly casts Esuna on Cloud and the two set themselves and get ready to attack.

            "Where is the girl" asks Cloud as the 2 stand back to back in a crater looking for any signs of attack from the remaining four.

            "Pfft." Vincent replies coldly. "She is dead for all I care, and she deserves whut she got." With a flash Vincent is paralyzed by a stop spell and Cloud is tackled to the ground by two mages while the third grabs his sword pops out a red materia in one of the slots and runs swiftly away.  The last two are not as lucky.  Cloud has reached his breaking point, with a surge of energy he knocks the two off of him and grabs his sword. They both stand there hissing at Cloud when they see he has started to glow pure white and is rushing toward them with incredible speed.

            "OMNISLAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHHH!!!" bellows Cloud as he comes within a foot of the two.  In a hail of slashes that doesn't seem to ever end they find the conclusion to their un-lives and the beginning to their time in oblivion.  They both burst into dust before they can even feel the blade find home. Standing there wiping his blade and panting slightly Cloud looks around for any sign of the Boss or the last Vamp. Mage.  He sees Vincent walking towards where the floating girl had been. Vincent isn't there anymore, he has started to transform into the Chaos Beast and has the look of blood lust in his eyes.  Cloud rushes over to see whut is wrong when he sees the girl is on the ground seemingly paralyzed and it looks like Vincent isn't going to let her suffering last much longer.

            "…He's going to kill her…" Cloud whispers to himself in a moment of terrible realization. He sees the hate in Vincent eyes and knows that he must try to stop him before he does something he will regret.  Moving as quickly as he can he runs up in front of Vincent and blocks his way. "You DON'T want to do this Vincent!"

            "Get out of my way Cloud! She will DIE for whut she did to me!" the chaos beast growls with flames spilling out of his mouth. Seeing that he cannot dissuade the beast Cloud reaches back and grabs the handle to ultima weapon.

            "Don't make me do this Vincent." Cloud says while somewhat drawing his blade. "Another innocent will not die on my watch.  If you do this you become no better then Hojo, you will have to repent for even more of your sins" This seems to break through to Vincent because he now starts to change back to himself but he stops transforming when only his wings are left.

            "Thank you my friend." He says to Cloud. "I will be back, I need some time to repent and to think." With this he spreads his huge leathery wings and takes off vanishing from site no more than a few seconds later. After watching his friend go Cloud turns to the girl and scans her. She has only 156 of her 8000Hp left and it is slowly draining out of her.

            "H-help me…" Buffy croaks out while she lies there waning between consciousness and sleep. She feels all of a sudden rejuvenated and her burns are gone. She has been somehow healed and is as good if not better then she was when she came into the battle tonight. The blond man, Cloud, is kneeling down next to her holding an empty vial of something marked "X-Potion" which he has seem to have just used on her.

            "Are you okay?" he asks while he helps her stand up. "Think you can walk?"

            "Yes, I'm fine." She states as she stands. "Who are you, what is going on, whut did you do to me, what is that thing with the wings you were talking to, why did those men….XANDER!" in all that has happened she has forgotten about her fallen friend. She quickly rushes by Cloud over to the mausoleum to find Xander's body still ripped asunder.  She begins to cry holding his hand when a bright white light appears above her and she sees… she sees angels? They are coming out of the light and raining tears down onto Xander.  Whut Buffy sees she cannot explain. The wounds that killed Xander are healing up quickly and the weapons seem to disappear from around him. With a flash of bright light the angels are gone and Xander is breathing, looking at buffy who is sobbing with joy for whut she has just seen.

            "Buff…" he moans out while sitting up. "Whut h-happened to me?!" He looks afraid and confused. As he glances towards Cloud a look of recognition crosses his bewildered face. "I…I know you…" he mutters inaudibly.

            "Ahem!" Cloud coughs out. "Whut you just saw was Life3 haven't either of you seen magic before?" Both Xander and Buffy look at him like he has grown another head. "Whut, whuts wrong?"

            "You can bring people back to life!?" Buffy exclaims. The brunt-ness of his statement takes her aback. "How? Are you some kind of demon or something?"

            "No, My name is Cloud Strife of Nibelheim I am S.O.L.D.I.E.R. first-class. Now can you tell me something? Where on Planet are we?" he states yet again in his military fashion. He then glances towards Xander and notices that he has passed out. "Your friend seems to have lost consciousness."

            "Oh crap, he must have lost a lot of blood." says Buffy. "Help me get him back to the Magic Box." She tries to heft Xander up but can't. "Gah, he needs to cut down on the donuts a little. Could you help me lift him, we can probably both get him together"

            "Don't worry, I got him." Says Cloud as he walks over, picks up Xander's body, and throws it over his left shoulder with incredible ease. "Now, can you answer my questions please? Buffy was it?" Buffy stares in disbelief for a second at how Cloud easily carries Xander even though it is clear that Xander is far heavier than Cloud. They both walk out of the graveyard in utter silence.

            After a block in almost complete silence Buffy can no longer contain her curiosity about this strange man.  "Um, Cloud was it, could you tell me some stuff about yourself? I mean you show up out of nowhere, with a seemingly immortal vampire no less, wielding a sword bigger than me and flinging some very powerful magic around like it is nothing.  I guess I am in your debt for saving my friend and all but I want to know a little more about you."  A little to her surprise the answer doesn't come from Cloud but from her friend thrown over his shoulder.

            "His name is Cloud Strife and he is so totally bad-ass it isn't even funny."  Comes a voice from Cloud's back. Xander has wakened and is feeling almost as good as he has ever felt in his life. "Um yes and on that note, ummm Cloud… sir? Could you kind of let me down? Please?" Cloud lets him down off his back and gives him a look to make sure that he is all right.  "Omigod…omigod…omigod. I can't believe this." Xander keeps repeating while looking Cloud up and down, even poking him a few times.

            "XANDER!!!" Buffy shouted in order to get his attention. "How do you know who Cloud is?" Cloud was a little intrigued as well and grabbed Xander by the shoulder.

            "Yeah, how do you know I am?" Cloud asked while subtly casting Slow on him to calm him down a bit. A trick he had learned from Vincent when he had ate way too much Hyper to induce a Limit Break.

            "Your CLOUD STRIFE!!! How couldn't I know you? Ok buff remember a few years ago when I got my playstation?  You know that game I didn't stop playing for about 6 months?  This is the MAIN CHARACTER OF FINAL FANTASY 7. I know absolutely everything about him." Buffy looked at Xander with disbelief and a little bit of confusion.

            "Xander what are you talking about?  Are you telling me that this guy is a videogame character?"  Buffy doesn't believe her ears.  Cloud a videogame character?  Much to her surprise Cloud doesn't look at all shocked by what Xander has said about him, if anything he has forgotten about their conversation all together and is searching for something. A little concerned Buffy goes over to him and puts her had on his shoulder.  

            "No its not." Cloud replies coldly with a little bit of what sounds like worry in his voice. "I'm missing one of my materia, one that I really don't want to be out of my hands."  Buffy's face scrunches up into a confused look.  Seeing this Xander interjects a quick explanation.

            "Ummm Materia is what people from Cloud's world use to perform magic.  There are five kinds with different uses Green or Spell, Yellow or Command, Blue or Support, Purple or Independent, and finally the most powerful of them all is Red or Summon materia…" Xander explains rather mater-of-fact-ly.  Buffy as well as Cloud is looking at Xander at this point. "So, Cloud, whuts missing?"

            With a little bit of disbelief in the stranger's knowledge of his world he sits down on the curb of the currently dark street.  With his back to his wall he brings his knees up and places his head in his hands. "Since you know so much about my world then you better sit down to buddy.  It's Knights of the Round those Vampire Mages from earlier must have gotten it from me." Xander looks as though he is about to faint again but kind of just staggers a little and sits down next to Cloud in the same position.

            "Buffy we need to help him get his Materia back.  SOON." Xander says with a little bit of shock in his voice.

            "Wait a second before we get all worried about materia or whatever lets talk about your vampire friend. Vincent was it?" Buffy says with a sound of authority in her voice.  "I know he may be your friend but he seems like he was a little bit out of…" Before she can finish her statement a chilling voice from behind cuts her off and finishes it for her.

            "Control?" a calm chilling voice from above comes. Vincent has returned and is above them on top of the building they are sitting next to.  He quickly jumps over the edge of the building, flipping in mid-air and lands next to Cloud. Standing up and outstretching his right arm he says, "In that you are wrong, I was in complete control of myself the entire time." Death Penalty is pointed directly at Buffy's heart before she can even react and from the look in his eyes Vincent wants to pull the trigger.


End file.
